Monday, April 30, 2007

If only the response to this case was the response people had to all sexual assaults.

A member of staff at the home in Nottinghamshire, disturbed a naked man in the woman's room, while making routine patrols at 0520 BST. [...]

Mr Anderson, who is in charge of the inquiry, said: "It defies belief that someone can sink so low as to attack and sexually abuse a helpless old lady who has had a stroke and who is incapable of defending herself."

He added that it had yet to be established how the offender had entered the premises and that the man was "very dangerous and must be caught as soon as possible".

I don't know any men who disagree with the assessment that a man who preys on vulnerable women like this are very dangerous and need to be caught as soon as possible, but unfortunately there are plenty of people who have a very different reaction when the victim is incapacitated after a night of partying.

Sometimes the difference in reaction is so great that people deny even the possibility of real rape. But the nature of the crime is exactly the same. The nature of the nursing home rapist is the same as the nature of the rapists who exploit other vulnerabilities.

Judge cases based on the criminal and on the crime, not on anyone's assessment of the worthiness of the victim.

About Abyss2hope

Abyss2hope is centered on date rape, but isn't limited to discussing crimes which can be described this way since the causes and attitudes related to date rape are interconnected with domestic violence and other types of sexual violence.

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